Positional locating system and method

ABSTRACT

A method and system are disclosed for locating or otherwise generating positional information for an object, such as but not limited generating positional coordinates for an object attached to an athlete engaging in an athletic event. The positional coordinates may be processed with other telemetry and biometrical information to provide real-time performance metrics while the athlete engages in the athletic event.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/708,045, filed Dec. 7, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,786,456, which, inturn, is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/657,217 filedJan. 15, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,330,611, and claims the benefit ofU.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/205,146 filed Jan. 15, 2009 andU.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/287,361 filed Dec. 17, 2009,the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to systems and methods of positionallylocating moving objects and real-time generation of telemetry andperformance metrics for the moving objects.

BACKGROUND

Global positioning system (GPS) can be used to positionally locate amoving object. GPS relies on a GPS enabled device attached to the objectto calculate positional coordinates based on information transmittedfrom orbiting satellites. The reliance on orbiting satellites can beproblematic while the moving object is within a covered area since theGPS enabled device may not receive the signals necessary to perform itscoordinate calculations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is pointed out with particularity in the appendedclaims. However, other features of the present invention will becomemore apparent and the present invention will be best understood byreferring to the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompany drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a locating system in accordance with one non-limitingaspect of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates spatial reduction in accordance with one non-limitingaspect of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates performance telemetry in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a graphical user interface in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention; and

FIGS. 5-6 illustrate head and limb devices in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a locating system 10 in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The system 10 may includeon one or more cameras 12 to facilitate locating one or more devices 14as the devices 14 travel within an area covered by the cameras 12. Thedescription set forth below is predominately described with respect tothe cameras 12 being positioned around a swimming pool in order tofacilitate locating the devices 14 while the devices 14 are being wornby swimmers swimming within the swimming pool. In this example, thedevices 14 are referred to as head devices 14 and a master station 16may be configured to facilitate control of the head devices while thecameras 12 capture related images in order to determine a position ofthe swimmers with the swimming pool. The position of each swimmer can becalculated from a spatial reduction of the signals captured within theimages to particular positions within the pool.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates one example of the spatial reductiontechnique contemplated by the present invention where one of the cameras12 may be positioned relative to a swimming pool 18 to capture imageframes 20, 22 of events taking place within its viewing angle 24. Whilethe present invention fully contemplates the image frames 20, 22including visual and/or non-visual representations of any capturedsignals, the images frames shown in FIG. 2 represent images frames 20,22 captured with an infrared (IR) camera 12 configured to capture IR orother non-visible representations of signals emitted from one or morebeacons 28, 30 included on head devices 14 of on a first and secondswimmer (1, 2) that happen to be swimming in the area covered by thecamera's viewing angle 24 at a first time (T1) and second time (T2). Thecamera 12 may include a filter or other configuration particularlysuited to capturing the signals emitted from the beacons 28, 30.

The first image frame 20 captured at time T1 and the second image frame22 captured are time T2 are shown to be of the type where the camera 12was configured to filter signals other than those that correspond withthe beacons 20, 22. The captured signals are shown with circularrepresentations for exemplary purposes only. Depending on the resolutionof the camera 12, the wavelength and strength of the signal may exhibitsome other pattern or representation within one or more of pixels (notshown) of the image frames 20, 22. A pixel-by-pixel analysis of theimage frames 20, 22 may be performed with an image processing element 32(see FIG. 1) of the master station 16 to identify the pixels thatrepresents receipt of the strongest signal. Depending on the positioningof the camera 12 at the time the image frames 20, 22 were captured, eachof the pixels can be associated with a particular area within theviewing angle 24, i.e., to a particular location/position within thepool 18. The pixel having the strongest signal can act as a center forcoordinate generation purposes.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 2 includes the camera 12 being set a fixedposition above the swimming pool 18 in order to simplify the spatialreduction of the images captured within the image frames 20, 22 toparticular areas in the pool 18. Since the position of the camera 12 isknow and fixed, a limited number of calculations are needed to associateeach pixel of the image frames 20, 22 with a known portion of theswimming pool 18. This example, however, is not intended to limit thescope and contemplation of the present invention. The present inventionfully contemplates the camera 12 moving such that additional processingmay be required to fix the position of the camera 12 at the time ofimage capture before the areas associated with each image pixel could beidentified with a particular area of the swimming pool 18.

Each of the pixels chosen to be representing the center of the emittedsignals may be associated with an X-axis and Y-axis coordinate valueaccording to an identity of the swimmer (shown as swimmer #1 and swimmer#2) and a timestamp representative of a time at which each image framewas taken (shown as timestamp #1 and timestamp #2). Using thismethodology, a coordinate value (X_(ST), Y_(ST)) can be assigned to alocation of each swimmer within the captured image frames 20, 22 where Xidentifies a position along the X-axis, Y identifies a position alongthe Y-axis, S identifies the swimmer, and T identifies the timestamp.This image-based coordinate may be defined relative a positioning of thecamera 12 capturing the associated image and may be sufficient todetermine a location from a single image, as opposed to having to takemultiple pictures before fixing the location. In some cases, multiplecameras 12 may be used to capture images of different and/or overlappingportions of the pool. The resulting image-based coordinates may bedefined locally to that associated camera 12 and thereafter the spatialrelationship of one or more the cameras 12 may be used to reduce theimage-based coordinates into some other coordinated system and/or tocheck the relative accuracy/precision of the other coordinates.

A location computer 34 may be configured to host the image process unit32 and to output the image-based coordinate values as rawrepresentations of the swimmer's location within the images 20, 22and/or the image processing unit 32 may be configured to convert orotherwise process the image coordinates into world coordinates, globalposition system (GPS) coordinates, and/or some other coordinateorientation that has an absolute coordinate other than the camera orpool 18. The coordinate information may then be communicated to a hostcomputer 36 for further processing. The host computer 36 may include aserver 38 to host a planning application 40 and a training application42 along with middleware 44 and temporary data storage 46 to facilitateinteraction with other elements of the system 10 and to otherwisesupporting data and processing demands necessary to supporting theoperations contemplated herein.

The train application 42 may be a tool that tracks and otherwiseprocesses telemetry information for the swimmers based at least in parton the coordinate information output from the location computer 34. FIG.2 illustrates a performance telemetry image frame 48 to illustrate howsome of the metrics contemplated by the present invention may becalculated based on the coordinate values, such at but not limited todistance traveled and speed. The performance telemetry image frame 48can be used as a superimposition of two or more of the image frames 20,22 where movement of the swimmers between images frames can begraphically illustrated with a first reference vector 50 and a secondreference vector 52. The length of the vectors 50, 52 can be used torepresent distance traveled which can then be used to calculate speedaccording to a time elapsed between the first and second timestamps.

The exemplary illustration of distance and speed is not intended tolimit the scope and contemplation of the present invention as thepresent invention fully contemplates including the coordinatedrepresentations in any type of a calculations, particularly calculationsthat are specified to the actions and movements of element being trackedwith the device 14. FIG. 3 illustrates a display 60 of exemplaryperformance metrics that may be generated based at least in part on thecoordinate values. In some cases, the performance telemetry may be basedin part on additional information collected from the swimmers, such asbased on information collected from limb devices 62 attached to arms andlegs of the swimmers (see FIG. 1). The limb devices 62 may be includeaccelerometers or other devices configured to monitor and reportmovements of the swimmer to the master station 16, such as throughwireless communications. The data transmitted form the limb devices 62may be sent in real-time and coordinated with the real-time calculationof the coordinate values to provide a real-time analysis of the swimmersactions, i.e., stroke rate, stroke style, speed, splits, etc.

The real-time telemetry may be output on a user interface of a hand-helduser device 66 (see FIG. 1) connected to the master station 16 by way ofa wireless node 68, such as but not limited to a tablet computer used bya coach to monitor swimmer performance. FIG. 4 illustrates one exemplaryconfiguration of a graphical user interface 70 where the telemetryinformation of a particular swimmer is display with numerical values ofcurrent performance, and optionally, with color coded references towhether the swimmer is performing at, below, or above pastaverages/metrics. The performance telemetry may be displayed relative toa video window 72 showing a real-time video of the selected swimmermoving through the swimming pool. The video may be captured with one ormore video cameras 74 (see FIG. 1) positioned around the swimming pool.The feeds from the video cameras 74 may be spliced together to provide acontinuous video as the feed switches with movement of the swimmerbetween the cameras 74 placed at different locations along the pooland/or one or more of the cameras 74 may be configured to automaticallymove with the swimmer according to positional information determinedfrom the coordinate values.

A central server 78 and one or more personal computers 80 may beincluded in the system 10 (see FIG. 1) to facilitate storing theperformance telemetry for any number of swimmers and to allow theswimmers to retrieve the telemetry data and recorded video at later timefor review. The central server 78 may include a billing application 82and registration application 84 to facilitate managing online contentand subscription based services to the performance telemetry. Onlinesocial networks may be established to facilitate remote training andcompetitions between swimmers swimming at different swimming poolsacross the country. One of the advantageous contemplated by the presentinvention relates to its ability to provide real-time feedback duringpractice and retrieval feedback at a later time, such as to support filmstudy and review by the swimmer themselves. The system 10 supports afull spectrum of performance telemetry and is particularly suited toperformance telemetry of the type that is based at least in part onobtaining a positional location of the tracked entity.

The positional tracking described above relies on a camera 12 or othersensor to positionally orientate a signal from one or more beacons 28,30 included on a swimmer. This methodology is believed to be particularbeneficial to supporting the real-time performance telemetrycontemplated by the present invention since it allows the master station16 or some other entity other than the head device 14 to perform thepositional calculations. This can be helpful in reducing the size,complexity, and cost of the head device 14, although the presentinvention fully contemplates configuring the head device 14 to calculatetheir own positional coordinates through wireless communication andprocessing of the image frames 20, 22. The head device contemplated byone non-limiting aspect of the present invention, however, may includewireless communication capabilities and other capabilities necessary toimplementing the objectives of the present invention, such as but notlimited to having an transceiver (not shown) to support one-way ortwo-way information exchange and processing over a wireless systemestablished with the master station.

The wireless system may be used by both of the limb and head devices 14,62 to facilitate wireless communications with the master station 16. Thelimb device communications may be used to transmit accelerometer,biometric, and other types of data collected by the limb devices 62 tothe master station 16. The wireless communications may be facilitatedwith the use of MAC address or other unique addresses assigned to eachof the head and limb devices 14, 62 so that messages sent to andreceived from the head devices 14, 62 can be uniquely identified andcontrolled. The master station 16 may include a table or otherrepresentation to further correlated the MAC address with particularswimmers, such as by requiring each swimmer to log-in prior to practiceor to otherwise identify themselves with a particular head device. Themaster station 16 may further associate the head device with aparticular signature or other unique representation to be output fromthe associated beacon 28, 30 so that each beacon 28, 30 shown within theimage frames can be identified with a particular swimmer.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates thebeacons 28, 30 emitting signals with a self-identifying pattern (such asbut not limited to emitting signals at particular sequence or flashrate) and/or at a predefine interval of time. The self-identifyingpattern may be a slightly more complex signature since it may requirethe master station 16 to assign and decipher unique patterns for anumber of head devices 14, which can be difficult should there be 50 or100 swimmers being tracked at the same time. The predefined intervalassignment process may be less complex since it may only require themaster station 16 to monitor an epoch assigned to each of the headdevices 14 for beacon transmissions. Each beacon 28, 30, optionally, maybe assigned a unique epoch where it is the only beacon transmitting asignal at a particular period of time. In this scenario, the timestampassociated with each image frame can be cross-referenced with the beacon28, 30 assigned to transmit during that period of time to identify theone or more beacons 28, 30 within the image frame 20, 22. In thismanner, the present invention is able to generate positional coordinatelocations for the swimmer without requiring the head device 14 tocalculate its own position.

The head and limb devices 14, 62 may be battery powered andwaterproof/resistance to support wireless operation within the swimmingpool and other environments. A docketing station 90 having ports foreach set of the limb and head devices 14, 62 may be included in thesystem to facilitate battery charging, and optionally, software loadingand updating. FIG. 5 illustrates the head and limb devices 14, 62 beingparticularly configured to support operation with a swimmer inaccordance with on non-limiting aspect of the present invention. Thelimb device 62 may be configured for receipt within a wrist wrap 92 andan ankle wrap 94. The head device 14 may be configured with the firstbeacon 28 and the second beacon 30 that protrude through correspondingopenings within a swim cap 96. The swim cap 96 may include an envelope98 or other structure to position the first and second beacons 28, 30relative to the openings.

While the use of both of the first and second beacons 28, 30 is notrequired, it may be helpful to have one or more of the beacons 28, 30emitting the signal. Optionally, the master station 16 may assign eachof the first and second beacon 28, 30 their own transmission interval sothat only one beacon is transmitting within each image frame 20, 22. Thefirst beacon 28, for example, can be used when the swimmer is performinga breaststroke or other action where the rearward portion of the headmay be pointing away from the camera, such as towards a bottom of thepool or other direction where refraction/reflection may prevent a properreading of the signal from the rearward beacon 30. Similarly, thesecond, rearward beacon 30 may be used when the swimmer is performing afreestyle stroke or other action where the forward portion of the headmay be pointing away from the camera, such as towards a bottom of thepool or other direction where refraction/reflection may prevent a properreading of the signal from the forward beacon 28. The emitting beacon28, 30 may be selected based on accelerometer data collect from the limbdevice 62, such as through direct wireless communications between thelimb and head devices 62, 14 or by way of master station 16 wirelesscommunications, and/or the head device 14 may include an accelerometerto make its own determination.

The head device 14 is further shown to include an ear bud 100. The earbud 100 may be used to facilitate audio communications with the simmer.One form of audio communication may include the master station 16 orother device wireless transmitting verbal instructions from the coach tothe swimmer, such as through a microphone (not shown) included on thetablet device. Another form of audio communication may include the headdevice 14 being programmed, either wireless while the swimmer isswimming or before, to issue chimes and other audio references toswimmer to indicate distance traveled, stroke rhythm, etc. and/or tosimply play music. As shown in FIG. 6, the head device 14 may include adetachable pod 102 that can be connected through a USB port to thecharging station 90.

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosedherein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodimentsare merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in variousand alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale, somefeatures may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particularcomponents. Therefore, specific structural and functional detailsdisclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as arepresentative basis for the claims and/or as a representative basis forteaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the presentinvention. The features of various implementing embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention.

While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described,it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe allpossible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in thespecification are words of description rather than limitation, and it isunderstood that various changes may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention. As required, detailed embodiments ofthe present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to beunderstood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of theinvention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. Thefigures are not necessarily to scale; some features may be exaggeratedor minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore,specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not tobe interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis forteaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the presentinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of positionally identifying athleteswithin a defined space, the method comprising: associating anidentification generated for each athlete with a device to be worn ormounted while each athlete moves within the defined space; controlling abeacon included within each device to emit a signal at an intervalspecified within a beacon transmission schedule; controlling aninstrument to record images representative of at least a portion of thedefined space, each image plotting recorded signals within atwo-dimensional field defined by a viewing angle of the instrument;calculating image-based positional coordinates for each signal appearingwithin each of the recorded images, the image-based positionalcoordinates defining spatial positioning of the beacons emitting thesignals relative to the two-dimensional field of the instrument;reducing the image-based positional coordinates to defined space-basedpositional coordinates, the defined space-based positional coordinatesdefining spatial positioning of the beacons emitting the signals withinat least a two-dimensional coordinate system defined relative to atleast a length and width of the defined space; and for each of theimages, identifying the athlete at each of the defined space-basedpositional coordinates based on the identification of the athletescheduled to emit signals at the time the image was captured.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 further generating the beacon transmission schedulesuch that each beacon emits the signal only at the intervals duringwhich no other beacons are scheduled to emit the signal.
 3. The methodof claim 1 further comprising controlling each beacon to emit the samesignal.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling a firstone and a second one of the beacons scheduled to emit signals during thesame interval to uniquely issue the signal such that the signal emittedfrom the first one of the beacons is different from the signal emittedfrom the second one of the beacons.
 5. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising wirelessly transmitting the beacon transmission schedule toeach device with signals emitted from a master station having a wirelessrange sufficient to support wireless communications with the deviceswhile each person or object is within the defined space.
 6. The methodof claim 1 wherein each beacon includes a forward and a rearward sourcespositioned on the athlete, and wherein the method further comprisescontrolling the beacon to emit the signal from at least one of theforward and rearward sources.
 7. The method of claim 6 furthercomprising selecting only one of the forward and rearward sources toemit the signal depending on a measured activity being performed by theperson or object.
 8. The method of claim 7 further comprisingdetermining the measured activity from information wirelessly collectedfrom one or more instruments included on the athlete.
 9. The method ofclaim 7 further comprising controller each beacon to emit the signalfrom the rearward source when the measured activity of the athlete ispointed away from the instrument controlled to record imagesrepresentative of the at least the portion of the defined space.
 10. Themethod of claim 7 further comprising controller each beacon to emit thesignal from the forward source when the measured activity of the athleteis pointed away from the instrument controlled to record imagesrepresentative of the at least a portion of the defined space.
 11. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: calculating each of a distancetraveled and a rate of speed for each athlete having signals recordedwithin at least two images, the distance traveled and the rate of speedbeing based at least in part on a change in position of the athlete asrepresented by movement of the beacon between at least two images;graphically outputting at least the distance traveled and the rate ofspeed on a user interface in real-time while the athletes travel withinthe defined space based at least in part on signals wirelesslycommunicated from a master station used to calculate the distancetraveled and the rate of speed; automatically controlling an instrumentto record video of one or more of the athletes by controlling a viewingangle of the instrument to move with the one or more athletes as thepeople or objects travel within the defined space, the controlling ofthe viewing angle being based at least in part of the definedspace-based positional coordinates of the people or objects; andwirelessly transmitting audio signals from the master station to one ormore of the devices, the audio signals being processed by an audiocomponent of the device for output within an ear of the associatedathlete.
 12. A method of generating positional coordinates for aplurality of moving objects, the method comprising: instructing each ofthe plurality of objects to emit a locating signal according to aschedule, the schedule being set such that each of the plurality ofobjects is scheduled to emit the locating signal during a differentperiod of time; determining images of an area in which the plurality ofobjects are moving, each image fixing a representation of any locatingsignals appearing at a time of capture; calculating positionalcoordinates for each of the representations, the positional coordinatesreflecting a position of the objects at the time of capture; andassociating the positional coordinates with the plurality of movingobjects by cross-referencing the positional coordinates for each time ofcapture with the one of the plurality of moving objects scheduled toemit the locating signal at the time of capture.
 13. The method of claim12 further comprising emitting the same locating signal from each of theplurality of objects.
 14. The method of claim 12 further comprisingemitting each locating signal at a wavelength that remains fixedthroughout the period of time during which the signal is being emitted.15. The method of claim 12 further comprising emitting each locatingsignal at a modulation frequency that remains fixed throughout theperiod of time during which the signal is being emitted.
 16. The methodof claim 12 further comprising emitting each locating signal withoutmodulating the signals to include locational information or positionalcoordinates.
 17. The method of claim 12 further comprising dynamicallyvarying the locating signal according to wireless instructions receivedfrom a master station positioned with a wireless range of each of theplurality of objects.
 18. A locating system operable with a plurality ofdevices each having a beacon configured to emit a non-modulated signalat a fixed wavelength, the system comprising: one or more instrumentsconfigured to take images of an area; a master station configured towirelessly communicate a broadcast schedule to each of the plurality ofdevices, the broadcast schedule specifying a period of time during whicheach beacon is to emit the non-modulated signal; and wherein the masterstation is configured to generate positional coordinates for each beaconappearing within each of the images based on the beacon scheduled toemit the non-modulated signal at the time each image was taken and arelative position of the one or more instruments taking each image. 19.The system of claim 18 wherein each of the plurality of devices includesan ear bud configured to output audio based on audio stored on each ofthe plurality of devices or wirelessly received from the master station.20. The system of claim 18 wherein each beacon includes a sourceselectively controlled to emit the non-modulated signal depending on ameasured activity being performed by the corresponding device.